Can't see External HD or some cd's

[gadgetdad]

I have some strange issues with my 2007 macbook pro with the latest leopard installed.

(1) A family member loaned me a hard drive that he had been using with his Macbook. For some reason I am unable to view or mount it on my macbook pro. The lights come on for 1 second then nothing. Tried it on a PC and the PC see's it fine and he has never had issues with it.

(2) Now 1 week ago we purchased a different portable HD. My Macbook would see it and mount it, but would not write to it until I reformatted.

(3) Picture CD's - I have had numerious people give me picture cd's that I am unable to view on the macbook. However on a PC they are fine.

So in a nutshell, it seems like my macbook has an issue with formats it personally doesnt write. Any ideas? This is driving me nuts.

 

[gadgetdad]

My Time machine external drive works fine also.

Last night I did try to plug in the unmountable external drive to my Airport Express to see if it would see it, still nothing.

I wish this was an April fools joke.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Try in a new user. I don't think there are many (if any) picture formats that are only available in Windows and not on Mac.

 

[gadgetdad]

Did that, I setup a new user profile and logged in as that. No change.